The Burning Bush.

THE BURNING BUSH .

An Address by the Rev . James Byron Murray , Grand Chaplain of the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of New York .

TjiACTS have a deeper and more powerful effect on the JL mind than the causes which lead to and produce them . A full and most accurate account may be given of the Corliss engine ; each part laid open to a thorough

inspection and knowledge of it , until the mind of tho maker is revealed in its inventive power , and commands respect and admiration . But how much more grand will be the

effect on man when he beholds it in work , lifting its ponderous arms , turning every wheel without noise or jar , and in the perfection of its arrangements , setting in motion the instruments of the manifold industries in that

exhibition which marked a century of national skill and national progress . And this holds true in the moral and intellectual world . The qualities and powers of the mind and the heart have a wider influence upon socictv when

exhibited in the actual life , than when made the subject of a treatise in philosophy or mental science , however refined it may be ; for life is the most impressive and potent fact in nature . The philosopher may unfold the faculties of

man and shape an ideal character in humanity , bnt when there is brought before tho eye , the reformer or philanthropist , working , toiling for the elevation of society or the race , the living , acting man is felt to be a nobler thing than the grandest ideal of the philosopher .

It is a remarkable fact that the Book which is our guide in Masonry no less than in our spiritual life , meets so largely and so closely this want of man ' s nature . Divine truth is unfolded in every relation , suited to iite manifold

circumstances of man ' s being . The truth is all-embracing as the sun , ever the same in its strength , shining on from age to age , affluent in its power and penetrating- nnd givinglife to the work and functions of nature . Whatever the

object or the conditions of man may be , it is fitted for that object or condition ; and silently and yet so marvellously tending in every part to produce in man the object that he needs .

This is true of the men of old who have influenced human life as seen in God ' s Word . There is no special portrait of them ; but their life is unfolded in its various

conditions . They are brought before us more by their words and deeds than by a special description of them . and from these we can draw our own conclusion as to the

great master principle which controlled their lives and made them ideal lives , example for men in all generations . It is thus we gather the various materials of that

character which has left such an impress on the Masonic Institution and furnished it with magnificent symbols to work out in its life and make Masonry not only a splendid brotherhood , but a moral power in the ages .

But as we have on another occasion given the chief features of Moses' life , we can now only take that portion of it which will furnish us with his training to be a leader of men , and which will furnish us with the

Burning Bush and its meaning for us as men ancl Masons . The story of his life is familiar . By faith he was saved from death in the waters of the Nile . The adopted son of Pharaoh ' s daughter , he was brought up in a palace , and

educated in all the learning of the Egyptians . The occasion is known how he took the part of his people , and forsook the treasures of Egypt . That which seemed the destruction of his life was the nnseen bnt open way to a

higher grandeur ancl more enduring greatness than to sit a monarch on a Pharaoh ' s throne and to he entombed in the stately silence of a pyramid . This is ever the way of Providence . God is working in the plans of man , and not man

alone . Life issues from death ; strength from weakness ; light from darkness ; completeness from the broken and fragmentary in existence and history . It is so in this great world around us . The fallen leaves of Autumn touch the

soil and nurture it , and spring up in the fruitage of the year . The breath of decayed matter infuses itself into the air , and contributes to its varied life in manifold ways . It is so in the higher kingdom of humanity ; circumstances

may seem to crush men down , but out of defeat God leads on the hosts of His own divine purposes for man . Out of the eater comes forth meat . The little insect that toils so noiselessly in the farther sens raises up by the slow work of years the coral islands , and passes away ; but its unnoticed

The Burning Bush.

work has formed places for man to build np civilisations . Rome was occupied in her own aggrandisement , but in the opening up of roads for the spread of her empire she tin . consciously prepared a way for religion to spread and

transform the earth . Columbus , as he steered across the unknown seas , seeking a pathway to the farthest East , was an instrument in a hand stronger than his own , and a means of giving a continent for man to create history anew and

found the grandest commonwealth of thought , of industry and freedom—an ompii * o for tho broadest development of humanity and the home of the truest human liberty . So God works unseen , and nature and man become His agents and carry to their issues His magnificent plans .

In that flight from Egypt God had a special work for Moses to do , and the renouncing of his greatness in the court of the Pharaohs was the pathway to a more enduring oreatness . The child of the Nile was not to be an

Egyptian , but an instrument in the hand of God to work out a destiny for mankind , and to be , not the leader of the people only , but the guide and teacher of the race . Forty years passed slowly in his Midian shepherd life ,

Failure ancl solitude were shaping the man to higher issues . The ark that held all that was worthy and precious in Israel was tossing in danger among the angry billows of an Egyptian tyranny . Only one hand could hold

the holm ancl steer through tho storm to tho quiet harbour and leave it in safety far from the troubled and chafing sea . Moses was striving to read out the meaning of this wilderness discipline . He was learning to unfold a

mystery grander than the brilliant masses of the stars or the great nature around him , the mystery of his mission and destiny . For years he kept the peaceful flocks at the foot of Horeb . The seasons camo and went . The life

came with its old duties , and passed away in days and years with those duties simply done . The waiting time was a time of discipline , the time of the ripening of character , the time of the unfolding of a mind grand in

its thought , its Josirnincr nnd philosophy . The great gifts of intellect were touched and sanctified by the greater gifts of his spiritual being . He hacl held communion with the magnificence of nature ancl its Creator , and the

mind could not lower itself again . The solitudes of the plains and hills were nurturing that reflection which solitude ever aids , and throwing his whole nature into reliance on Him who made the hills a learning place for humanity ,

for the culture of strength and repose of character . Man would hasten results and shorten the time of waiting , and press to their issues the great plans of God . But God

waits in calm grandeur for the unfolding of His purposes , and whether it is the events of history or the actions of man , they come forth only in the hour which he has designed .

The character of Moses , like all great human characters , was fashioned by discipline , and sculptured into proportion by the painful process of waiting and the shaping hand of patience . These were needed in his development ancl the

sublime destiny that lay before him . The people demanded a man gentle yet strong , the noblest man of all ages—one strong in leadership , gentle in that he trusted in a power beyond himself , and so was meek . And the man was found

in that Midian shepherd ; educated not alone in a splendid court , but amid the hills with their silent and abiding influences . Disappointment , with its sharp fires , had burned out the secret ambition for self-aggrandizement ;

and he was tender and true , and so fitted to lead a people to that land into which it was to rise up a nation with its teachers and prophets for the races ancl generations of mankind .

And when the hour came for this the man was prepared , ancl the sign was near tbat he must begin his work . It came with a symbol for the eye , and a voice for the ear . At the end of a second great period of his

life , at a time when man , if ever , seeks repose , Moses was called . As the culture in the palace had given him a place among kings , so tho discipline in the wilderness had prepared him to act for God . He is called out of his quiet

obscurity when venerable with age , and when his character had been moulded for use by adversity . As he is guarding his flocks he beholds a manifestation of the immediate presence of God . The angel of the Lord appears to him in a

flame of fire out of the midst of a bush , infused with fire yet not consumed . In astonishment he gazed on this marvel . Ancl as the philosopher and scholar drew near to examine this great sight he is stopped by the voice—•' Put off thy shoes from off thy feet , for the place whereon